More research - The Animator's Survival Kit - Part 2

                In this blog post I will continue the research I’ve started last time on ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams.

            On page 102 of the book there is a chapter called ‘Walks’ that offers an in-depth look on walking animations and various principles, as the name suggests. The opening paragraph contains a few lines that I found to be quite interesting and particularly useful since I will also be creating walking and running animations. For future reference, I will copy the lines here:

          
  ‘Walks’ (page 102) – ‘Advice from Ken Harris’

• ‘A walk is the first thing to learn. Learn walks of all kinds, ‘cause walks are about the toughest thing to do right.’

• ‘A walk is a process of falling over and catching yourself just in time.’

• ‘All walks are different. No two people in the world walk the same.’

• ‘Women often take short steps in a straight line – legs close together = little up and down on the body.’

• ‘Mr. Macho (ie. a man), however, because of his equipment, has his legs well apart so there’s lots of up and down body action on each stride.’

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            So among the most important things to remember are that the walks are the first thing one should master when learning animation; all walks are different just as every other person is different from the previous; women walk in a straighter line with little to no up and down movement (head bobbing), whereas men are quite the opposite with wide forward lunges and therefore lots of up and down body action as a result.

            Moving on, Williams starts explaining how to get the weight right. I will be making notes here of the things I considered to be useful.

    
 ‘Getting the weight’ (page 106)

            
           In essence, Williams talks about how important increasing the up and down motion of the body is when walking, because without the up and down movement the body would seem to be floating. He points out that the ‘down position’ is the one where you can feel it as the knee bends under the weight of the body, and also how the arm swing is at the widest during the ‘down position’ as well.

‘It’s the up and down position of your masses that gives you the feeling of weight.’

‘It’s the down position where the legs are bent and the body mass is down – where we feel the weight.'

            Example of a ‘normal’ walk:

1. First, the 2 contact positions. The arms should always be opposite to the legs to give balance and thrust.

   

      2. The 'passing position' (or 'breakdown') is next. It is important that the position is slightly higher than the other two positions because of the straight leg. As a result, the pelvis and the head will be slightly higher than in the contact positions.

     3. Next is the 'down position' where the leg takes the weight of the body and consequently the position of the head will be lower than the average mid point (contact positions). 
Another thing to note is that the arm swing is at the widest at this point.



 

     4.  The 'up position' is the next. The foot pushing off lifts the pelvis and the head to the highest point. The other leg is thrown off to reach for the contact position.

     5. The weight goes down right after the contact position. Then up after the passing position.
The heights would therefore be Contact > Down > Pass > Up > Contact and repeat.



'Set the tempo' (page 109)


         Here, Williams talks about the timing for each position. He states that 'the first thing to do in a walk is set a beat'.

'Generally, people walk on 12's - March time (half a second per step | two steps per second)'
'You have to use 'thirds' - think partly in thirds.'







'There IS an easier way - have him/her walk on 16's - or walk on 8's.
Much easier to walk on 16's  - it's easier to divide up - same thing on 8's.'

Different tempos:

• 4 frames = A very fast run (6 steps a second)
• 6 frames = A run or very fast walk (4 steps a second)
• 8 frames = Slow run or 'cartoon' walk (3 steps a second)
• 12 frames = Brisk, business-like walk - 'Natural' walk (2 steps a second)
• 16 frames = Strolling walk - more leisurely (2/3 of a second per step)
• 20 frames = Elderly or tire person (almost a second a step)
• 24 frames = slow step (one step per second)
• 32 frames = ...'show me the way...to go home'...

He then ends by saying something I will have to reflect more on:

'DON'T try to work out a cycle walking in place with the feet sliding back, etc. Cycles are mechanical and look just like what they are - cycles.'

'The passing position or breakdown' (page 111)

            

         The most important thing to note here is that the passing position or the 'breakdown' dictates the type of walking you want to do. The breakdown position can be used to display a certain personality of the character through his walk. Here are some interesting examples:

'There's a very simple way to build a walk. Start with just 3 drawings -'

          So essentially, changing the height of the breakdown position can alter the walk - 'we get a very different walk - a 'cartoony' walk' . Instead of having the breakdown position higher than the contacts but lower than the up position, we lower the passing position down.

'The crucial thing is this middle position and where we put it.'

The passing position can be squashed, bended;

Or it could look this way;

It can take pretty much any sort of stance;

Even one that looks as if the character is sneaking;











'These contacts are all the same but the middle position utterly changes the walk.'

        As I have said earlier, the important thing is that the middle position (passing / breakdown) is the position that has the ability to alter the walk, turning a 'normal' walk into a sneak for example.


References:

Williams, R. (2001). The Animator's Survival Kit. Unites States of America: Macmillan USA, pp.102-115.